Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor, GM-CSF, was originally identified as a hemopoietic growth factor. It is produced by a number of cell types including lymphocytes, monocytes, endothelial cells, fibroblasts and some malignant cells (Metcalf et al., 1986; Clark and Kamen, 1987; Hart et al., 1988; Metcalf et al., 1986). In addition to having a function of growth stimulation and differentiation on hemopoietic precursor cells, GM-CSF also was discovered as having a variety of effects on cells of the immune system expressing the GM-CSF receptor (for review see: Hamilton, 2002; de Groot et al., 1998). The most important of these functions is the activation of monocytes, macrophages and granulocytes in several immune and inflammatory processes (Gasson et al., 1990b; Gasson et al., 1990a; Hart et al., 1988; Rapoport et al., 1992).
Mature GM-CSF is a monomeric protein of 127 amino acids with two glycosylation sites. The variable degree of glycosylation results in a molecular weight range between 14 kDa and 35 kDa. Non-glycosylated and glycosylated GM-CSF show similar activity in vitro (Cebon et al., 1990). The crystallographic analysis of GM-CSF revealed a barrel-shaped structure composed of four short alpha helices (Diederichs et al., 1991). The overall folding is similar to other growth factors like growth hormone, interleukin-2 and interleukin-4.
GM-CSF exerts its biological activity by binding to its receptor (Kastelein and Shanafelt, 1993; Sisson and Dinarello, 1988). The most important sites of GM-CSF receptor (GM-CSF-R) expression are on the cell surface of myeloid cells and endothelial cells, whereas lymphocytes are GM-CSF-R negative. The native receptor is composed of at least two subunits, alpha and beta. The alpha subunit imparts ligand specificity and binds GM-CSF with nanomolar affinity (Gearing et al., 1989; Gasson et al., 1986). The beta subunit is also part of the interleukin-3 and interleukin-5 receptor complexes and, in association with the GM-CSF receptor alpha subunit and GM-CSF, leads to the formation of a complex with picomolar binding affinity (Hayashida et al., 1990). The binding domains on GM-CSF for the receptor have been mapped: GM-CSF interacts with the beta subunit of its receptor via a very restricted region in the first alpha helix of GM-CSF (Shanafelt et al., 1991b; Shanafelt et al., 1991a; Lopez et al., 1991). Binding to the alpha subunit could be mapped to the third alpha helix, helix C, the initial residues of the loop joining helices C and D, and to the carboxyterminal tail of GM-CSF (Brown et al., 1994).
Formation of the GM-CSF trimeric receptor complex leads to the activation of complex signaling cascades involving molecules of the JAK/STAT families, Shc, Ras, Raf, the MAP kinases, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and NFkB, finally leading to transcription of c-myc, c-fos and c-jun. Activation is mainly induced by the beta subunit of the receptor (Hayashida et al., 1990; Kitamura et al., 1991; Sato et al., 1993). The shared beta subunit is also responsible for the overlapping functions exerted by IL-3, IL-5 and GM-CSF (for review see: de Groot et al., 1998).
Apart from its hemopoietic growth and differentiation stimulating activity, GM-CSF functions especially as a proinflammatory cytokine. Macrophages and monocytes as well as neutrophils and eosinophils become activated by GM-CSF, resulting in the release of other cytokines and chemokines, matrix degrading proteases, increased HLA expression and increased expression of cell adhesion molecules or receptors for CC-chemokines. The latter, in turn, leads to increased chemotaxis of inflammatory cells into inflamed tissue (Chantry et al., 1990; Hamilton, 2002; Sisson and Dinarello, 1988; Zhang et al., 1998; Hamilton et al., 1993; Lopez et al., 1986; Cheng et al., 2001; Gomez-Cambronero et al., 2003). Often, GM-CSF exerts its activity in synergy with other inflammatory stimulating factors like other cytokines or LPS, e.g. neutrophils treated with GM-CSF in combination with e.g. LPS will show increased oxidative burst (Kaufman et al., 1989; Rapoport et al., 1992).
GM-CSF as Target for Anti-Inflammatory Therapy:
Due to its diverse activating functions in the immune system, GM-CSF can be considered as a target for anti-inflammatory therapy. Chronic and acute inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), Crohn's disease, psoriasis, asthma, atopic dermatitis or shock may well benefit from the blocking of GM-CSF activity and subsequent reduction of harmful activities of GM-CSF responsive cells (Hamilton, 1993; Zhang et al., 1998; Hamilton, 2002).
Arthritis:
Several groups showed that GM-CSF, as well as its receptor, are present in the synovial joint of arthritis patients (Alvaro-Gracia et al., 1991; Xu et al., 1989; Haworth et al., 1991). Additionally, GM-CSF was shown to cause flares of rheumatoid arthritis in patients treated with GM-CSF for neutropenia in Felty's syndrome (Hazenberg et al., 1989) or after chemotherapy (de Vries et al., 1991).
First hints on the usefulness of antibodies blocking GM-CSF for the treatment of arthritis came from mouse in vivo studies (Campbell et al., 1997; Campbell et al., 1998; Cook et al., 2001). Specifically, Cook et al. showed that neutralizing antibodies to GM-CSF showed efficacy in a collagen-induced arthritis model. Blocking of GM-CSF led to a reduction of disease severity concerning inflammation, cartilage destruction and progression of disease in initially affected limbs or progression to other limbs.
There are several effects of an anti-GM-CSF therapy from which the patients with rheumatoid arthritis or with other inflammatory diseases could benefit.
Blocking GM-CSF is Expected to Inhibit or Reduce:
a) the activation and number of mature monocytes, macrophages, and neutrophils. Especially neutrophils and macrophages are abundant in synovial fluid and membrane. The macrophage number in the synovium has been shown to correlate with the degree of erosion in RA joints (Mulherin et al., 1996; Burmester et al., 1997). Macrophages are the source of a variety of other proinflammatory cytokines and matrix degrading proteases. Production of H2O2 by neutrophils is part of the destructive processes taking place in the arthritic joints (Babior, 2000).
b) the differentiation of myeloid dendritic cells (DCs) and activation of synovial DCs (=synoviocytes). GM-CSF upregulates and maintains HLA class II expression on DCs and RA synoviocytes (Alvaro-Gracia J M et al., 1991). DCs are instructed within the joint to acquire functions associated with the selective activation of inflammatory T-cells. Specific HLA-DR alleles have been linked to susceptibility to RA, and activation of T-cells via antigen presentation of DC's may play a crucial role in this type of immune disease (Santiago-Schwarz et al., 2001).
Multiple Sclerosis:
In multiple sclerosis, elevated levels of GM-CSF correlate with the active phase of MS (Carrieri et al., 1998; McQualter et al., 2001) and GM-CSF−/− mice fail to develop disease in the model system for MS, experimental encephalomyelitis, EAE (McQualter et al., 2001).
Asthma:
In asthma, increased amounts of GM-CSF in the lung have been reported (Broide and Firestein, 1991). At the same time eosinophils are elevated, on which GM-CSF in synergy with interleukin-5 acts in three ways: i) it stimulates the differentiation from progenitor cells into eosinophils, ii) it stimulates their functional activation, and iii) it prolongs the survival of eosinophils in the lung (Broide et al., 1992; Yamashita et al., 2002). Thus, reduction of the survival of eosinophils in asthmatic airways by blocking GM-CSF is likely to ameliorate disease. The usefulness of anti-GM-CSF neutralizing antibodies was further shown in a model for murine asthma where the administration of such antibodies led to significant reduction of airway hyperresponsiveness and airway inflammation (Yamashita et al., 2002).
In a different mouse model, LPS-dependent inflammation of the lung could be reduced by application of anti-GM-CSF antibody 22E9 in the mouse (Bozinovski et al., 2003).
Toxic Effects:
Mice homozygous for a disrupted granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene develop normally and show no major perturbation of hematopoiesis up to 12 weeks of age. While most GM-CSF-deficient mice are superficially healthy and fertile, all develop a disorganized vascular extracellular matrix with disrupted and reduced collagen bundles and abnormal lungs with impaired pulmonary surfactant clearance and reduced resistance to microbial pathogens in the lung. Features of the latter pathology resemble the human disorder pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP). GM-CSF does not seem to be essential for the maintenance of normal levels of the major types of mature hematopoietic cells and their precursors in blood, marrow, and spleen. However, they implicate GM-CSF as being essential for normal vascular development, pulmonary physiology, and for resistance to local infection (Stanley et al., 1994; Dranoff et al., 1994; Plenz et al., 2003; Shibata et al., 2001). Recently, a strong association of auto-antibodies to GM-CSF with PAP has additionally implicated GM-CSF signaling abnormalities in the pathogenesis of PAP in humans. Together, these observations demonstrate that GM-CSF has a critical role in regulation of surfactant homeostasis and alveolar macrophage innate immune functions in the lung (Bonfield et al., 2002; Trapnell and Whitsett, 2002; Uchida et al., 2004; Kitamura et al., 1999).
High titers of autoantibodies with blocking activity to GM-CSF have been described in patients with myasthenia gravis. These patients did not show any other autoimmune phenomena or hemopoietic deficiencies or “other obvious clinical correlates” (Meager et al., 1999).
The compound E21R, a modified form of GM-CSF that antagonizes the function of GM-CSF, had been evaluated in a phase I safety trial and was found to have a good safety profile in cancer patients (Olver et al., 2002).
Thus, apart from the lung function, which should be monitored closely, other side effects are not expected when applying an anti-GM-CSF therapy.
So far, only antibodies derived from non-human species with GM-CSF neutralizing function have been generated. For example, EP 0499161 A1 describes an antibody generated by immunization of mice with oligopeptides, the sequence of which is derived from a GM-CSF. Furthermore, the application discloses a method of alleviating in a mammal in need thereof an undesirable effect of GM-CSF, which comprises administering to said mammal a GM-CSF-inhibiting amount of an immunoglobulin. However, that antibody is a murine antibody, rendering it unsuitable for human administration.
Additionally, WO 03/068920 discloses an inhibitory chimeric mouse/human IgG1 antibody. Antibodies that contain non-human sequences are likely to elicit an immune response in the human patient and are not appropriate for the therapeutic administration. For instance, in diseases where long-term treatment is required (e.g. chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and multiple sclerosis), continued administration of a non-human therapeutic agent increases the likelihood of a severe inflammatory reaction and the production of human antibodies that may neutralize the therapeutic agent.
Correspondingly, in light of the great potential for anti-GM-CSF antibody therapy, there is a high need for human anti-GM-CSF antibodies with high affinity that effectively block the GM-CSF/GM-CSF receptor interaction. Additionally, it would be advantageous to have one or more antibodies that can cross-react with GM-CSF of one or more non-human species in order to test their efficacy in animal-based in vivo models.
The present invention satisfies these and other needs by providing fully highly efficacious anti-GM-CSF antibodies, which are described below.